Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Members will recall that we had invited Nursing Homes Ireland to appear last week and it regrettably declined but indicated in its correspondence a willingness to appear. I thought we had agreed that we would take it up on that. I think it was on the suggestion of Deputy Catherine Connolly, if I am not mistaken, that we would write to Nursing Homes Ireland and invite it in. It required some form of clarity on what subjects we might like to address with it. We can and should provide that. Arising from last week's engagement with the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, were issues that arose with regard to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, specifically as it relates to the funding of nursing homes and the fair deal scheme. I thought we agreed that we would issue an invitation for NTPF to attend. The complication that arose was the necessity for clarity on a memo that has come into the possession of the committee and is now a document of the committee as I understand it. It has been circulated to us and forms part of our papers. Clarity was required about the extent to which or whether legal privilege applied to that document. I also understood that we would seek legal clarity, a legal opinion or legal advice on that matter. The three issues are legal advice, then, aside from that, the invitation to Mr. Tadhg Daly and whomsoever he wishes to bring with him from Nursing Homes Ireland, and also the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

A specific issue arose around a meeting that we know occurred and an exchange we had that we focused on. I think we need to finish with that. This work also feeds into a broader piece of the work programme which we have discussed many times, which is a deeper analysis of the fair deal scheme. I think €1.3 billion of public money-----